Marketing

This just in, or what the industry like to say, “Breaking News!”

Scanning Facebook on my smart phone this morning revealed something very telling! What I was able to see was just one more reason that Facebook is bad for small businesses! If your planning to use Facebook for marketing your small business, then you better take time to read this.

Why is marketing on Facebook not good for small businesses? Because … you can’t afford it! Take a look at the screen capture above. What do you see? I see BIG business using Facebook’s sponsored ads to not only get traffic, but also to promote it’s daily news show! Did you catch that? The above pic shows that Channel 7 ABC News is using Facebook to sponsor daily shows. So why is that big news? You CAN’T afford to promote daily! And the news gets even worst.

“Fundamentally, Facebook cares about THEIR business, not about YOUR business.” Jay Bear

In a recent post here from Convince & Convert (4 Things You Can Do About Your Facebook Problem) Jay Bear breaks down what is happening to your marketing efforts on Facebook (I think his statements says it all) and that’s just the beginning. In February I remember reading about a FAILED Facebook ad campaign that ended with a $600,000.00 unpaid bill by a small business owner that Facebook ran up on his credit card bill. He only had approved $489,000.00 (that no chump change either) here’s the link!

What is also true, is that big business has full time copy writers that know how to write headlines and copy that grads your attention (they do it as their full time job) and did I mention that they also have visual content creators also? (picture from the same sponsored post)

Did you see the amount of likes and comments? Now that is engagement. I’m not sure if you have a complete marketing department, and the budget to do this? Or, the time to create all these daily post to drive traffic to your business. What I do know is that trying to compete with the big boys will only empty your pocketbook.Even if you have been able to get traction with your own “#” (hashtag).

But wait … the daily news just got worst (but when is anything on the news good?) this just in today:

Here’s what you need to know:“Previously, Facebook has focused on interests at face value. For Interest-based targeting, if a user liked a page, a brand or even a public figure such as the irresistible Ryan Gosling, they would be tagged as an avid fan. This strategy is limited by the thinking that if that user liked Ryan Gosling a year or two ago, an advertiser would market to them, even if they now found him to be distasteful, or had fallen horribly out-of-love.”

What’s going on now: “Broad Categories have been phased out. Precise Interests are outdated. Facebook is now paying closer attention to more of your online habits.”

Don’t worry small business owner, because tomorrow, I’m going to give you the answer to what you need to be doing with your marketing. Make sure you subscribe so you’ll get it in your inbox, and I promise to show you how to create traffic for FREE!

Has this hit the mark? The target market mark?

The one thing that I feel is important in your marketing is to hit the target, and to do that you need to be testing to determine how close you are to reaching your target market so you can stop testing. That’s right, I said, “so you can stop testing!” The above picture was taken from a resent outing to the store to pick up a few things when this caught my eye.

The Esquire Magazine looks like they are doing some split testing in this months (May 2014) issue. Which got me thinking about, “do you ever stop testing your market?” If you look close at the two issues they are the same, except for the way the cover are are choosing to appeal to different sexes.

The answer to when to stop split testing is YES/NO (I’m not trying to be funny) but I’m saying that there is a point when you do stop. You stop the test! The point that you do stop is at 95% (picture below from Marketingexperiments Slideshare here )

As shown in this slide, when your “Level of Confidence” reached 95% of your “Required Samples” you can stop. So why would Esquire Magazine be doing a A/B split test? After some further review of the magazine and it’s target market (did you know that Esquire has an appeal to women) it’s not really about split testing it’s about appeal.

Does your marketing have an appeal to different targets? To try to market to everyone and everything is about your brand becoming a commodity, but when you’re marketing to appeal to your target (being both to men and women, or marketing to men or women) then you need to make sure you do your customers right by making it appeal to them specifically. Is that what your marketing is doing?

Are you stuck in the endless testing of your market and not appealing to them?

Can you clearly see the solution?

The solution to your money problems is NOT to become an Entrepreneur! In business your money problems come from NOT providing solution’s for others! Can you see this clearly now?

When you become an entrepreneur you help others see clearly that you have solutions to their problems, and for this they give you money! This is how you make money in business!

When I was with Michael E. Gerber talking about business, I asked him to share with me the “one thing” that he thinks entrepreneurs should know?

Are you ready for his answer?

“Unless your idea for a business exceeds anything you have ever imagined doing before, is bigger then anything you believed yourself capable of before this moment, has the potential of transforming a large number of people lives in the world to make a huge difference in how the worlds works, and challenges you sufficiently to risk everything you have to make it a reality, … DON’T DO IT.“

Do customers TRUST you?

More importantly is, “how do I build that online?” If your looking for the fastest way to grow your business online, then I would recommend you start here, with the A.B.C.’s of trust.

“It’s the most essential ingredient in effective communication. It’s the foundational principle that holds all relationships.” Stephen Covey

We all have heard that we need the “know, like, and trust” factor online. But what are the steps to make it happen? I have been using these A.B.C’s for years and wanted to share them with you. (Please feel free to share this Slideshare with others.)

Trust is an inside-out process and is built on character and competence within a company.

The hidden truth about trust in business:

Trust is an economic driver, not merely a soft virtue.

Trust is the number one competency of leadership

Trust is a learn-able competency.

When you communicate online, do you think in terms of trust? You customers do, and so do the people who may think of following you. and or buying from you!